Monthly Archives: March 2013

Three adults and four teens participated in the 2013 St. Mary’s River Cleanup, which got underway in Baker County at the Steel Bridge Road boat ramp at 7:30 am on March 16.

Bryant Thrift supplied the airboat that allowed volunteers to travel up the river to the Nassau County line to collect additional litter and debris. Kevin Shell, who serves on the St. Mary’s River Management Committee with Greg Sheppard, estimated the group removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the river and its shores.

The committee, which consists of residents and elected officials in Baker, Nassau, Camden and Charlton counties, organizes the cleanup and the lunch celebration that follows it each year. The committee meets on the first Monday evening of each month in Callahan.

A 26-year-old Lake City woman died yesterday after the 2005 Kia Optima she was driving crossed into the path of an oncoming logging truck on U.S. 90 about 5 am.

Lindsay Danielle Chace was heading east and the 2001 International semi tractor-trailer driven by Ernest Thomas Williams, 43, of Jacksonville was heading west when the Kia, for a reason still under investigation, crossed the center line and hit the truck head on, according to Trooper K. Hilliard of Florida Highway Patrol (FHP).

As the semi and Kia left the roadway and into the southern tree line, the vehicles struck the front of a 1994 Cadillac that was trailing the Kia.

A recent invitation to county commissioners to offer comments or objections to one of two pending sand mining proposals being considered by state regulatory agencies expired weeks before commissioners even knew about it.

The offer was extended in a memorandum dated January 22 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which asked for written comments concerning applicant E.R. Jahna Industries Inc. to be returned to DEP headquarters in Tallahassee within 30 days.

“This is your agency’s opportunity to provide comments on and/or to concur with or object to the proposed project,” stated the memo from DEP’s Mining and Mitigation Program office.

During a board meeting on March 5, county commissioners wanted to know why they had not heard about the memo, which listed County Manager C.J. Thompson as one of its intended recipients, until it was too late to respond.

“I got a copy (of the memo) yesterday from somebody in the audience,” Commissioner Adam Giddens said. “I don’t like that. We need to all be on the same page and know what’s going on.”

He said he immediately called the county manager’s office to inquire about the matter.